BS: Royal Mail costs

Subject: BS: Royal Mail costs
From: Rasener
Date: 21 Apr 09 - 04:00 AM

I just thought I would make a comment about delivering mail to our doors.

I came out my door this morning and drove no more than half a mile and saw 5 royal mail vans parked and the drivers were delivering post.

What does that cost.

Whatever happened to the good old post person who cycled everywhere to deliver our mail. Do they use vans now, becuase they don't want to wear the cycle helmets.

Subject: RE: BS: Royal Mail costs
From: JohnInKansas
Date: 21 Apr 09 - 05:15 AM

I don't know if it's the same with the Royal Mail, but in the US they need a truck to carry all the junk (advertising) mail.

Back "in the day" the average person got about 4 "letters" per month (3 utility bills and a bank statement?). Now you might add a credit card bill, a magazine or two, and/or a couple of insurance/medical bills, still less than a dozen pieces per month; but I get an average of 8 pieces of "mail" per day. (Since they started "targeted advertising" and including personal names and information, I've worn out two shredders just on the junk mail.)

The situation is much the same with the daily newspaper. A 12-year old kid used to walk a route to deliver 60 to 100 papers (6 or 8 pages each?) but now the papers are 6 pages of "news"(?) and 15 to 60 pages of ads. Apparently the advertising does pay well, since my local newspaper is still $0.52/day and it was about $0.23 per day back when the kid threw it in the bushes 60-odd years ago. With the same inflation rate, I should be able to buy at least a new Toyota for about $1,950.00 instead of $19,000.00.

John

Subject: RE: BS: Royal Mail costs
From: GUEST,lox
Date: 21 Apr 09 - 05:32 AM

where I live they still deliver the mail on foot.

In some areas they push a special trolley around.

Subject: RE: BS: Royal Mail costs
From: Bob the Postman
Date: 21 Apr 09 - 07:53 AM

I suspect they park on the high street and walk a loop of about half an hour's duration along the adjacent side streets, then park at a different location, walk another loop, and so on and on until "every last stick", as we say, is delivered. And bikes are all very well in the village, but in a city where the postal facility may be miles away the van is needed.

Subject: RE: BS: Royal Mail costs
From: GUEST,HiLo
Date: 21 Apr 09 - 10:08 AM

Our postie still walks..leaves his float on the main road and walks the lanes. He says he could drive but prefers to walk. In many cases the walking is done by the householder as they have to walk to a huge postal box and retrieve their own mail..how times change.

Subject: RE: BS: Royal Mail costs
From: Rasener
Date: 21 Apr 09 - 12:48 PM

LOL
3 were on our estate which is only small and the other 2 were on the entrance road. We have approximately 3000 in our rural town and our estate is less than half a mile away from the sorting office.

Subject: RE: BS: Royal Mail costs
From: gnu
Date: 21 Apr 09 - 01:47 PM

Canada Post has a different system.... the posties walk. They deliver mail for 55 Lee Street at 55 Bee Street. The residents of 55 Bee Street write "Delivered to wrong address" on it and drop it in a mailbox. The sorting machine "kicks it out" because the postage has been stamped as used. The next postie in rotation takes the incorrectly delivered mail to the correct addresses at the end of his shift, thereby gaining 4 hours of overtime pay and the use of a postal van overnight. (I used Lee and Bee as an example. Lee Street and Vaughn Harvey Memorial Boulevard work fine.)

That's not the worst of it.

Subject: RE: BS: Royal Mail costs
From: Q (Frank Staplin)
Date: 21 Apr 09 - 01:52 PM

Postmen (and Postwomen?) here (Calgary, Canada) deliver on foot and by truck; there are local area containers which receive mail from a truck, and the postmen take it and walk their routes. They deliver only regular mail (nothing much larger than a cd) and letter size registered or insured items. Some areas with widely separated houses have a site with a cluster of individual mail boxes, and recipients must walk or drive there to pick up their mail. Packages are delivered by truck to homes, but if the recipient is not at home, he must go to a regional post office to collect it.

No delivery on weekends.

Heavy package load in your area?
Trucks deliver packages, which, in this day of shopping from catalogues received in the mail, are numerous and constitute a large part of the load. A foot postman cannot cope with them.
Many of us find it easier to shop by mail, everything from clothing to household items to books and DVDs and toys, going to the stores only for groceries and drug items.

Subject: RE: BS: Royal Mail costs
From: Doug Chadwick
Date: 21 Apr 09 - 02:02 PM

I came out my door this morning and drove no more than half a mile .........

and where was your bike, Les?

Subject: RE: BS: Royal Mail costs
From: gnu
Date: 21 Apr 09 - 02:02 PM

Heheheee... drugs... if you know the right postie...

Subject: RE: BS: Royal Mail costs
From: Nigel Parsons
Date: 21 Apr 09 - 02:18 PM

Gnu:
Are you sure you're not thinking of 'milkman' rather than 'postman'?
Milkman delivers pot

Cheers
Nigel

Subject: RE: BS: Royal Mail costs
From: VirginiaTam
Date: 21 Apr 09 - 02:22 PM

when I was still working at county hall, we used to encounter a postman posse (15 to 20 all on bikes) coming out of the sorting office in Chelmsford every morning.

my postman rides a bike and he runs up and down the stairs of the flats. a van delivers parcels.

can't think why five in a one mile radius would be necessary unless they park centrally and deliver outwards from the hub.

Subject: RE: BS: Royal Mail costs
From: Rasener
Date: 21 Apr 09 - 03:40 PM

>>I came out my door this morning and drove no more than half a mile .........

and where was your bike, Les? <<

I was taking my daughters to school Doug.

Subject: RE: BS: Royal Mail costs
From: Diva
Date: 21 Apr 09 - 04:41 PM

We have a postie who is dropped off, I think that is fairly eco friendly. Where my inlaws lived they had a postie in a van but they were out in the middle of nowhere. I am more cross at the axing of the post buses

Subject: RE: BS: Royal Mail costs
From: Bob the Postman
Date: 22 Apr 09 - 08:17 AM

This is the only chance I will ever have to know more than Q about something. We Canadian posties handle packages much larger than a CD, up to 3 pounds and/or 200 cubic inches--anything larger goes by truck. You'd be surprised at how many packages measure up at 2 pounds 15 1/2 ounces and/or 199 cubic inches. In some towns and cities we use a system such as I described in my first post above, with two letter-carriers working out of one small van and delivering all parcels no matter how large. This system saves the PO money on cab-fare and fees paid to the private contractors who would otherwise be delivering large parcels and the relays of additional mail with which the carriers resupply themselves every half hour or so.

Subject: RE: BS: Royal Mail costs
From: gnu
Date: 22 Apr 09 - 10:41 AM

I should add... re Canada Post... around here, they have taken to the practice of hiring people in their 50's to avoid paying out large pensions.

Subject: RE: BS: Royal Mail costs
From: GUEST,PeterC
Date: 22 Apr 09 - 05:58 PM

When I lived in Greater London about 12 years ago a group of postmen and their bikes would be taken out by van and dropped at the start of their rounds.

In the days of two deliveries per day I remember special locked boxes being erected at the roadside. A van would deliver the sacks for the second deliveries and the posties would do both deliveries without returning to the delivery office.

Now that I live in a small village I pass the postman's van as I drive to work. I have a lockable drop box in the porch for larger packages. The postman and other delivery men usually either put the packages on top, or on the ground underneath.

Subject: RE: BS: Royal Mail costs
From: Bob the Postman
Date: 22 Apr 09 - 06:55 PM

gnu -- don't get me started